Article content‘SO OPEN TO EVERYTHING’Article content“So I took a listen to this song — and I loved it. He was so sweet in asking me to sing this with him, saying he was nervous to ask me and all this stuff. And I’m just laughing, thinking, what? Anyway, he is so humble and sweet and kind, and he let me do whatever I wanted (with the song).”Article contentThe accompanying video to Crazy In Love, shot by Sheppard’s daughter, Jordyn Crocker, captured a simple slow walk through the woods featuring MacDonald and Sheppard singing along the way.Article content“We just both went down to do this video and he was so open to everything, and I was open to everything, and Jordyn is just laughing and recording all of it, giving us suggestions and moving us around,” Sheppard said. “That’s a huge credit to having similar personalities. Because sometimes you can be awkward with people and you don’t get the best stuff because you don’t know what to do.Article contentArticle content“But here, it didn’t go that way at all. It is about the song — and we just happen to be lucky enough to sing it.”Article content Aaron MacDonald, Mabou singer-songwriter: “I hit this major creative burst (around 2019-2020), and I just started writing a couple songs a week — for weeks on end.” Photo by CONTRIBUTEDArticle contentCONTINUING JOURNEYArticle contentFor MacDonald, it’s a continuing journey delving into his songcraft that’s getting a second go-round of sorts.Article content“It’s funny, I played for 20 some years, and it’s like, I’m starting from scratch again,” he said. “I started my first gig in 1994, opening for Great Big Sea at St. FX (in Antigonish).”Article contentAfter his years at St. FX, MacDonald said in the late 1990s, he moved out west, spending time in Vancouver and a couple of years in Ontario, where his brother and sister were living.Article content“It wasn’t until the early 2000s I moved back to Nova Scotia — to Halifax — and then I had been playing ever since,” he said.Article contentAround that period, he began helming the Aaron MacDonald Band, recorded two solo albums in between — Green Apples, Sardines & Wine (1999) and John Prine’s Advice (2008), and toured relentless until about 2010. By then, he married and went on to help raise his four children.Article contentArticle content“I still played around locally, like in Inverness County a bit, and still wrote songs,” he said. “But just when the kids started coming, I had to slow down from the touring and all that.”Article contentAround 2019-2020, MacDonald had planned to get back into serious songwriting — then the COVID-19 pandemic shut down any possibilities of hitting the touring circuit. However, the pandemic — along with a push from his eldest daughter — spurred his songcraft along.Article content“I hit this major creative burst, and I just started writing a couple songs a week — for weeks on end,” he said. “And so during COVID, I started putting on a song every Sunday. I’d just record a little video and post a little song (on YouTube), and that became what I called Sunday Songs.”Article content Singer-songwriter Aaron MacDonald in performance during 2021. Photo by CONTRIBUTEDArticle contentTRYING TO IMPROVE EVERYTHINGArticle contentBy 2021, he gathered enough songs to put on an aptly titled six-song EP, It’s Been Too Long. The lead-off track, Gonna Get There, began getting regular radio rotation (particularly on CBC and The Coast 89.7 FM) throughout much of 2021 and 2022, even while he was set to release an album of newer material, Rights & Wrongs.
Putting Cape Bretoners’ work travels out west in perspective
